Ray Hill is the son of Raymond W. Hill and Mary Frankie Taylor

Civil rights activist and law enforcement reform advocate.

Ray Hill was born in Houston, Texas, on October 13, 1940, to Raymond Washington Hill and Mary Frankie Taylor. Hill graduated from Galena Park High School, and attended Stephen F. Austin, University of Houston, and Tulane. At age 18 while still attending Galena Park High School, Hill admitted his sexual orientation to his family, and from that day on Hill remained actively involved in a variety of civil rights issues including gay, lesbian, black, medical, and legal reform. Hill served for a time, as secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP.

In 1967 Hill, with fellow activists, formed the Promethean Society, the first gay rights organization in Houston, and subsequently, The Houston Human Rights League, Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, and Kaposi’s Sarcoma Foundation (now the AIDS Foundation of Houston.) Hill co-founded the Houston radio station KPFT FM, hosting a show regarding gay issues.

In 1976 Hill organized the first gay pride parade which attracted around 120 supporters. Hill, together with the Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, organized a protest attracting approximately 12,000 protestors to Anita Bryant’s concert in 1977 for the Texas Bar Association.

Hill organized Town Hall Meeting I held in the Astro Arena, attracting about 4,000 LGBT Houstonians, and which became the precursor to several other LGBT organizations in Houston.

Hill was an activist for those with what became known as HIV/AIDS and served for a time as a director of the FAIR Foundation. By 1979 Hill was helping friends with HIV and is credited with authoring the first safe-sex pamphlet in the US to help stop the spread of HIV, circulated by the Citizens for Human Equality.

Hill was serving as general manager of KPFT when he created The Prison Show in 1980 which not only broadcasted prison related news but allowed relatives of inmates a medium to convey message to inmates who were not allowed access to a telephone. The Prison Show and Hill were the subject of a 2005 documentary called Citizen Provocateur: Ray Hill’s Texas Prison Show. Hill was also the subject of an additional documentary titled The Trouble With Ray by filmmaker Ray Gullett. Hill also wrote and performed several one-person shows including Ray Hill, The Prison Years, Ray Hill & The Sex Police, Outlaw, Queer Like Ray Hill, and A Stroll Through Houston Gay History with Ray Hill.

As a result of a 1982 arrest, and although he was acquitted in Municipal Court, Hill took his case, City of Houston vs Hill, through the courts to the US Supreme Court to change the law. Hill won the case, forcing revisions to laws and policies that had formally allowed broad police authority to arrest onlookers for verbal actions during police incidents. Hill won a total of four federal cases against the City of Houston for similar police actions and First Amendment issues. One such case overturned an ordinance that forced citizens to identify themselves to police. Hill also spoke out against the police tactic of stings in which police officers go undercover as gay men and, according to Hill, try to "entrap" gay men into committing crimes. A particular incident in 2013 spurred Hill to protest these stings and challenge the then mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, specifically because she was openly lesbian.

After Hill’s death, a celebration of life was held on the steps of Houston’s City Hall mere block from Methodist Hospital where he was born. Hill was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Taylor Family Cemetery in Leon County.